Originally, I thought that we would need a few months of preparation before we could go to Scandinavia. It was a very long flight, probably requiring at least eight hours on the plane. Not to mention, it costed a lot of money. Air tickets, accommodations, and other equipment. Fortunately, I had some cash from selling surplus spirit stones from my dungeon, so I didn't have to worry about that.
That was helped with a discovery of a new spirit stone lode after the expansion of my dungeon following the victory over the Flood Dragon King.
"We excavated this region and found a rich vein of spirit stones," Long Wang informed me when I was inspecting the newly unlocked territories. This was located near the ghost forest I was nurturing, a cave mouth to a subterranean passage that was glittering with lots of spirit stones.
It wasn't just spirit stones. Apparently, the enchanted bark from the budding World Tree in the center of my forest could be sold for a high price too. And I had a pumpkin patch that continually made agricultural profit whenever I sold them to the markets in the surface. Not only that, plenty of Celestial Labyrinth residents would visit the bar in my dungeon to buy the iced pumpkin coffee and pumpkin spice latte. The Merchant, in particular, would often drop by for a drink even if he didn't want to do any business.
So money wasn't a problem, though arranging time out from my university schedule as well as preparing for the trip was another matter. The accommodation too…ugh. Traveling to another country wasn't as simple as it sounded. I wondered why the manhuas I had read made it seem so easy. The characters could just book a ticket and fly there immediately. In reality, I had to pack the necessary clothing and equipment, look for the right accommodation, search for a proper flight plan, try to establish connections with the locals there in case I needed a guide, and all that.
Then again, maybe it was because readers weren't interested in the logistics of travel planning.
Why did I bring them up? Well…as it turned out, while I was mulling over the best timeframe to travel to Scandinavia, my mom had an announcement a few days after the victory over the Flood Dragon Dungeon.
"I'm going to Scandinavia," she declared during dinner. All of us looked up at her in surprise. Myria, Sylvie and Silvia were there as well, joining us for dinner and the fairy sisters were being treated like daughters by both dad and mom. Myria…well, it had been over a year, and by now they had considered her their daughter-in-law. That was why we would often have dinner together, unless we were busy with university stuff during the weekdays or we were out on missions.
"Scandinavia?" Jun Hai repeated incredulously. "That's pretty far. Why?"
"The marine biology department I'm in has organized an expedition to Scandinavia," mom explained. Dad didn't seem surprised. He probably already knew about it. Mom tended to tell dad everything before she shared the information with everyone else. Sort of like how I informed Myria before announcing everything to my family. "I'm part of a group of researchers sent there to investigate the emergence of new marine spirit beasts in the seas of northwest Europe. There are reports of something huge making its nest in Ice Island."
Ice Island, contrary to its name, was hilariously not an island of ice. It was a nation of volcanic islands with a polar climate. That meant it usually had chilly summers, with its temperatures usually below 10 degrees Celsius all year round (probably colder during winters). But it wasn't as cold as, say, Minnesotan winters because of the gulf stream and volcanoes warming the islands up.
"I'm coming along," dad added with a grin as he leaned back and folded his arms. "I've been asked to head a security detail to protect the research team while they capture and dissect spirit beasts."
"You're supposed to capture the spirit beasts too," mom added. Dad shrugged and chuckled.
"Well, we will try."
This was fortuitous timing. In fact, it was so coincidental that it was almost downright scary. I wondered if there was providence from above that had planned everything out. Surely, the odds of my parents heading to Scandinavia for a scientific expedition a couple of days after I learned that I should visit it to make contracts with Sylphs were extremely low. It was almost as if a higher power had ordained what was to come.
If I was a cynical reader, I would say plot device and complain that it was contrived, but I had long since learned that the universe worked in strange ways. Sometimes, reality was stranger than fiction. More often than not, a series of events turn out to be a set of loosely connected coincidences. Whatever the case, I couldn't let this chance pass up.
"Oh, I was thinking of taking on a mission to Scandinavia," I said, nodding to Myria. "Myria, Sylvie, Silvia and I were planning to go there sooner or later. We were supposed to check out the World Tree. Do you mind if we come with you?"
"The World Tree?" Jun Hai asked. "You mean Yggdrasil?"
"Yeah. There are a few spirit beasts in Yggdrasil that we want to check out. You want to come along too, Jun Hai? You might as well, since it's a good chance."
"We have a spot open for an assistant," mom said thoughtfully. "And since you already have the qualifications and experience in marine biological research, you can take that, Jun Hai."
"Really? Then I will!"
"That's settled then." I nodded. "Myria and I will be applying for a mission to Scandinavia in the university, and then we'll follow you there."
And so, it turned out that I could leave the logistics to my parents. Funnily enough, this was going to be a family trip, which wasn't something I envisioned when the whole thing began.
When I went to Divine Path University, with Myria by my side, we headed to the faculty office to apply for a leave. As usual, Divine Path University allowed students to take leaves from classes when undertaking missions. In fact, we were encouraged to take missions in place of classes because they believed that practical lessons were just as important as theoretical ones. Furthermore, this was the end of the semester, right after the exams (I had passed my spirit array class, yay), so we were still technically on winter vacation.
However, there was no telling how long we would be out in the cold. It could take anything between a few weeks to a few months, and the semester might have long started before we could return to Hua Xia and Divine Path Academy. So it was better to err on the side of caution and apply for leave just in case we overshot the start of the semester.
"Oh, you're going to Scandinavia?" The administrative officer in the faculty of cultivation asked, her brow wrinkling. She was relatively young, in her mid-thirties, and was dressed in the stereotypical office blouse and skirt. Her long hair was tied to a neat bun, and she wore fashionable glasses. She peered at us from behind the triangular, red framed lenses. I tried not to squirm.
"Yeah, ma'am."
"Excellent. There are a few missions in Scandinavia that are open. Not many students are willing to travel that far, and the difficulty of these missions are pretty…high. But if it's you, then I don't see a problem."
"Thanks, ma'am. What are they? Are there any regarding the World Tree?"
"As a matter of fact, most of them have something to do with the World Tree." The clerk frowned as she brought up a window in her computer screen and turned the flat monitor around to show us. "The World Tree, as you know, is home to thousands of cultivators who make use of the rich natural qi to cultivate their techniques…um, we call them cultivators, but I think the Westerners use a different term for them. Anyway, there are also elves living there. They don't interact very much with us humans, and we rarely come into conflict, but these days, they have been actively approaching us humans for help."
"Interesting," Myria remarked. I understood her concern. As an Atlantean, her citizens were isolated from the surface world, refusing to let anyone know of their existence deep underwater. Elves were almost as reclusive, though their existence was not a secret. Even so, they must be facing quite the insurmountable threat to be desperate enough to request aid from humans. Myria's brow furrowed. "What kind of help?"
"Several of their enclaves in Yggdrasil have been attacked by hordes of spirit beasts," the clerk explained, tapping on a window. "Each mission is dedicated to a single enclave. There are rumors that there might be demons behind each of these raids, but we don't know for sure. That's why we are sending cultivators there on missions, to confirm the sightings of demons. Oh, and this being in Scandinavia, they might have different terms for the demons."
"Elves…and dark elves too." I nodded as I scanned the various missions. "We'll be there for some time, so we'll try to help as many enclaves as possible."
"You're going to take on so many missions?" As expected, the clerk was surprised. She shrugged. "You can try, but don't overdo it, okay? Besides, once the other cultivators are done with their missions, they might choose these. And Scandinavia, and lots of European…uh, cultivators would be helping out too. So you don't have to try and do everything on your own."
"I understand."
"I'll send you details on our liaison in Scandinavia, so meet up with them."
The clerk typed a quick message before sending me an email that I saw pop up on the screen of my smartphone. Excellent. This would make things easier. Since I wasn't familiar at all with the reality in Scandinavia, having a local guide would help greatly.
"Thank you."
"No problem. And be careful. Because they absorb the rich natural qi emanating from Yggdrasil, the spirit beasts in Scandinavia tend to be more powerful than most. So don't underestimate them."
"Understood." That made sense. I recalled how my Phantom Stumps, Ghost Pumpkins, Tree Revenants and Pumpkin Wraiths had benefited tremendously from the potent natural qi emitted from the budding World Tree in my own dungeon forest. If that was what a fraction of Yggdrasil was capable of, then I couldn't help but shudder at how much more powerful the actual World Tree would be.
With that done, we joined my family in flying to Scandinavia before the week was over. Booking seven seats, we basically occupied an entire row on the plane. Myria took the window seat while Silvia and Sylvie sat next to her, peering at the window after the aircraft had taken off.
"Wow, this is quite the experience!" Silvia said excitedly.
"Is this your first time on a plane?" Mom asked. Sylvie nodded.
"Yeah. We hardly left our village before. I think this is probably the furthest we have traveled."
"It's the same for us." Dad laughed as he reclined in his seat. "We've traveled often, but usually around Asia. Sometimes to Aussie. Europe is the furthest we've been to."
There was still the Beautiful Country on the opposite side of the world, but I supposed it would be a long while before I had the opportunity to travel there. The Beautiful Country was in opposition to Hua Xia, as both were the major superpowers of the modern era, especially after the fall of the Soviet Alliance several decades ago. That said, Hua Xia had only recently risen to the top after a long period of unrest and poverty. We had come a long way, huh.
Comparatively, the affluent European nations would be quite the different experience. I wondered how they would be like. I had often seen images of them online, lovely photographs of incredible vistas and romantic landscapes, stylish architectures and fashionable lifestyles, but now that I thought about it, this was the first time I would visit a European country in person. Yggdrasil, in particular, had always been a subject of awe for me, but I had never imagined that I would visit it one day.
Now that I had the chance, I couldn't wait to see what it was like in reality.